Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THEN AND NOW, by CECIL DAY LEWIS Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Do you remember those mornings after the blitzes Last Line: Make real, of glory, common wealth, and home. Alternate Author Name(s): Blake, Nicolas Subject(s): Factories; Labor & Laborers; Labor Unions; Memory; News; Strikes; Surrey, England; Unemployment; Work; Workers; Labor Disputes; Lockouts | ||||||||
Do you remember those mornings after the blitzes When the living picked themselves up and went on living Living, not on the past, but with an exhilaration Of purpose, a new neighbourliness of danger? Such days are here again. Not the bansheeing Of sirens and the beat of terrible wings Approaching under a glassy moon. Your enemies Are nearer home yet, nibbling at Britain's nerve. Be as you were then, tough and gentle islanders Steel in the fibre, charity in the veins When few stood on their dignity or lines of demarcation, And few sat back in the padded cells of profit. Boiler-room, board-room, backroom boys, we all Joined hearts to make a life-line through the storm. No haggling about overtime when the heavy-rescue squads Dug for dear life under the smouldering ruins. The young cannot remember this. But they Are graced with that old selflessness. They see What's needed; they strip off dismay and dickering, Eager to rescue our dear life's buried promise. To work then, islanders, as men and women Members one of another, looking beyond Mean rules and rivalries towards the dream you could Make real, of glory, common wealth, and home. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HIKING ON THE COAST RANGE by KENNETH REXROTH VIGNETTES OVERSEAS: 10. STRESA by SARA TEASDALE THE HIDING PLACE by JORIE GRAHAM LAURENCE BLOOMFIELD IN IRELAND: 8. THE EVICTION by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM THE STRIKE OF THE SMITHS by FRANCOIS COPPEE MUNDUS MOROSUS (THE WORLD MOROSE) by FREDERICK WILLIAM FABER |
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